Forsythias in Bloom
Sell the kids for food Weather changes mood Spring is here again… —Nirvana, “In Bloom”
Spring is here again, at least in one small corner of New England: our forsythia is, as Nirvana sang, in bloom.
I am not making that up.
Just yesterday an odd, misplaced flicker of yellow in an otherwise brown and bare back yard caught my eye. Upon further inspection I discovered half a dozen flowers blooming on the tip of a few slender branches of the forsythia, something I’ve never seen before March, at the very least.
Forsythia, as any gardener knows, is a harbinger of spring—not New Year’s Eve. It’s even defined that way in the gardening texts:
a shrub belonging to the genus Forsythia, of the olive family, native to China and southeastern Europe, species of which are cultivated for their showy yellow flowers, which blossom on the bare branches in early spring. I knew it had been a mild winter, but not that mild. Meanwhile, the Bush administration is finally acknowledging that global warming is, in fact, here and now, by proposing to add polar bears to the list of threatened species. Said our Secretary of the Interior, “the polar bear’s habitat may literally be melting.”
It’s about time somebody charged with our land resources figured this out—too late though it may be to benefit anybody, let alone the polar bears.
In “So, What if the Browns are Wrong?” this past August I raised the point that even the Wall Street Journal, whose editorial page is routinely filled with anti-Green rants, had carried the following headline as far back as December 2005:
“Is Global Warming Killing the Polar Bears?” Putting polar bears on a mere list will, of course, do nothing to stem their demise. We will dither, and we will debate, and with every cold spell that hits some part of the country the Browns will scoff—all science aside—at the notion that 600 million cars, hundreds of thousands of factories and millions of trucks have anything to do with it.
Yet in the meantime, the forsythia have, for now at least, been fooled into thinking spring is coming.
For they are in bloom. In southern New England. In December.
Jeff Matthews I Am Not Making This Up
© 2006 Jeff Matthews
The content contained in this blog represents the opinions of Mr. Matthews. Mr. Matthews also acts as an advisor and clients advised by Mr. Matthews may hold either long or short positions in securities of various companies discussed in the blog based upon Mr. Matthews’ recommendations. This commentary in no way constitutes a solicitation of business or investment advice. It is intended solely for the entertainment of the reader, and the author.
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